Pothole? Burned-out streetlight? There will soon be an app for that

You're driving through the city and your car hits a pothole. Or maybe you see graffiti you'd like to have cleaned up, or you notice that a streetlight has burned out or a sign has been damaged.

Some people will go through the process of contacting the appropriate city offices to have problems like these addressed. But many will often simply snap a picture with their cellphone and send it to a friend or post it on Facebook, Mayor Lisa Wong said. For a variety of reasons, others will do nothing at all.

Soon, however, it's going to become as easy as sending a text message to alert the city.

By early next year, residents and visitors to the city alike will be able to communicate municipal concerns such as potholes and graffiti to city employees on any day at any time via text and pictures through a free cellphone application called "Citizens Connect."

The program was developed by Boston's Office of New Urban Mechanics about three years ago and received a 2011 Government Computer News Award for IT Achievement.

Now, according to Fitchburg IT Director Trevor Bonilla, Boston is looking to extend the service to up to 20 other cities and towns across the state, including Fitchburg.

The way things work now, Wong said, somebody sees a pothole, calls it in while city offices are open and talks to a person who has to take down the message, which then either gets translated into a call or an email to the person who must address it.

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With Citizens Connect, several steps -- which take up lots of time that could be better used addressing these problems -- can be eliminated, she said.

"A lot of times, a citizen will call in a problem, and they won't get a response, so they think that nothing has happened," Bonilla said.

All texts and pictures sent to the city via the app will be stored in a database with real-time information, such as when the request was received and when it was addressed, and these details will all be available for public viewing. It also allows employees to send those making the requests a quick message back to let them know when the problem will be worked on and when it has been solved, Bonilla said.

The program will also give DPW workers, for example, the locations of several potholes mapped out, so that they can work strategically across the city and know how much material they need to bring with them for patching, so more time is spent working and less time is spent driving back and forth across the city, he said.

"We're going to work smarter with this," Bonilla said.

Simultaneously, the city is working on putting a program called "ViewPermit" to advantage for employees, businesses and residents alike, he and Wong said.

Soon, the city will also allow businesses and individuals to request permits and pay bills online through the city's website. From the comfort of a home or office, anyone will be able to find out what requirements they must meet, how much they owe the city and whether they're in compliance with their taxes, "all on the fly," Bonilla said.

Wong has also sent a $7,000 request to the City Council to purchase 14 tablet computers for inspectors from the building, health and other departments that will allow them to access and submit data to permanent storage from the field, rather than having to come back to an office to find it, in an effort to cut down on human error, paper and related costs. Data from every department will be entered and will be accessible to all, so, for instance, a Building Department inspector could see the last time the fire department visited a residence or a water inspector could submit information about structural concerns, she said.

If a resident wanted to get information on, for example, a subdivision being built in their neighborhood, now, Bonilla said, he or she would have to go to several individual departments for information. With the new system, one report of everything -- all of the permits pulled and where the project is currently at -- can be easily accessed in one report available at city offices, he said.

This will also allow board and committee members to do their own research and not have to wait for a department head to come and do a presentation, which will allow them to make more informed decisions and spend more time acting on requests than seeking information, Wong said.